BY CHARLES COLINS SONS, HANAU, CIRCA 1840

During the Napoleonic interlude, Ljubljana, under the name Laybach, was the capital of the Illyrian Provinces from 1809 to 1813. In 1815, the city became Austrian again and from 1816 to 1849 was the administrative center of the Kingdom of Illyria in the Austrian Empire. In 1821 it hosted the Congress, or Alliance, of Laybach. This was a conference of the allied sovereigns or their representatives, held in 1821 as part of the so-called Concert of Europe, which was the decided attempt of the Great Powers to settle international problems after the Napoleonic Wars through discussion and collective weight rather than on the battlefield. Amongst many others, the emperors of Russia and Austria were present in person and so, it must be presumed, was Josif Rajacic (1785–1861), metropolitan of Sremski Karlovci and Ljubljana. In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis.
For other boxes by this goldsmith see lots 149 and 208.